American owned and operated. Lodging, meals, and materials are included.
Come to Veracruz by plane (we'll meet you at the airport), bus, or car. Non-traditional
Spanish immersion optimizes your learning in this especially safe, very friendly city.
(About Us--click here)

median student age-- 49 years old
average length of study-stay-- 2.7 weeks

maximum group size-- 2 students
maximum school enrollment-- 24 students

comfort-- air conditioned throughout
accommodations-- individual room with private bath
safety information-- from
staff
from
students

Effective February 14, 2015

We must put the school into a state of limited offerings.

Our daughter is ill and is facing complicated surgery. We’ll need to be with her for two months or maybe three.

The doctors tell us the surgery will be somewhere between the beginning of March and the end of July. Since we don’t know when it will be, we can’t take any reservations for our regular "living-in" school stays during the coming six months.

Here are the two offerings we can make in our absence

day-student immersion using hotel-stays

online classes and conversation practice using Skype

With these offerings we're still able to invite you to come to fun and safe Veracruz. And whether in Veracruz or at home on your computer we're able to let you work with our wonderful staff.

Under our day-student program, you’ll stay in a hotel and work from seven to three with our staff. CLICK HERE to see a page describing this.

Online, using Skype our staff will be available for hour-long class and conversation sessions. CLICK HERE to see the online reservation info and signup page.

We’re sorry we have to be away from school. We’re very worried about our daughter. We must be there.

Our Spanish immersion is far south in traditional, colonial Veracruz and right on the ocean.

Veracruz always has been and is today one of the world's safest cities. Come to where it's still very, very safe in Latin America.

One-half block in from the ocean's edge, two blocks from the beach, and three blocks from our small, ocean-going craft, the school is located in a spacious and charming, old, fully air conditioned, colonial home. Along with instruction and Out-and-About Labs, school includes room, meals, and materials.

Click on the map to go to a waterfront layout.

Day trips--talking-in-Spanish trips--take you to pyramids and other ruins, the third highest mountain peak in North America, scuba and snorkling on the Veracruz coral reef system, river rafting, and dozens and dozens of cities, towns, and villages all different from one another.

The Veracruz Coral Reef System is made up of 15 major reef structures.

This is the northern half of the system. Click on the map to see the entire system.

Visit us on

Contact us:info@veracruzspanish.comSpam guard is a problem. If our reply isn't in your inbox promptly, please look in your spam or email us again.

Phone:Our U.S. number is (415) 939-4388. This is a San Francisco number that rings right through to us in Veracruz.

If you're a dancer, while you're here you can arrange to study the balletfolklorico. And even if you aren't a dancer, the visuals and live music are wonderful.

Ballet Folklórico is everywhere in Veracruz. On Wednedsay nights a group performs on the malecon.

An overnight trip will take you to the Voladores de Papantla

Veracruz is 100% alive and always fun. We're close to the harbor, close to the malecon, close to the historic and ever-vibrant downtown, and connected to everywhere with abundant public transportation. You'll never want the day to end. But it's okay because just like today, every tomorrow is also one of the best days of your life.

Veracruz Is Very Far South In Mexico And Is Very, Very Safe. The heartbreaking, terrible violence up along the border does not affect this part of the country. You can still come to Mexico and be safe--safer than in many other Latin American countries. We're always very happy to discuss safety with you.

Our Veracruz and Spanish Immersion Blog
Click on Our Blog About Veracruz and Immersion on the navigation bar (at the top of this page)
to see these blogs and more.

Caught Red-Handed [Veracruz]

All Is Well—I Was Taking a Rest [Veracruz]

I’ve Waited 10 Years--- [Veracruz]

“I was incredibly impressed with the professionalism and patience…” [Veracruz]

Medical Records [Mexico]

An ABD and a PS [Veracruz]

Chair, Cushion, Towels, and, . . . [Mexico]

Our Marina [Veracruz]

Don’t Try This At Home [Veracruz]

Like Being At The End Of Your Rope [Mexico]

“Escape the dreary English winter and enjoy the delights of ‘real’ Mexico” [Veracruz]

We let a big fish get away. [Veracruz]

The Taco Stand Looks Okay, But Is The Meat Fresh? [Mexico]

Supply Chain Expansion [Mexico]

Great Job! Super, Super Pics! And All In Spanish [Veracruz]

More Than Just A Crowning Touch [Mexico]

“I did not expect all that I received…” [Veracruz]

Tasty Extravagances [Veracruz]

Replacements [Veracruz]

“Last month was one of the most happy times in my life” [Mexico]

Feeding Google [Veracruz]

“Top-flight teachers, a quality program, and…” [Veracruz]

“Hello, Hello. Is Anyone There?” [Veracruz]

"Not only do they teach Spanish, they share a part of themselves… " [Veracruz]

Grassroots Activism [Veracruz]

Changing Tires [Veracruz]

Entrega a Casa [Mexico]

“…I felt perfectly safe.” [Veracruz]

Chicken Little Was Right! [Veracruz]

Beautiful Hot Air Balloons [Mexico]

“But Now I Know Firsthand That There Is No Need To Be Worried About Safety.” [Veracruz]

E.R. Medicine in Veracruz [Veracruz]

Things I loved about the Spanish Immersion School in Veracruz [Veracruz]

For more titles, please see the bottom of the blog page

Become a Speaker of Spanish

It’s easy to study Spanish; but it’s hard to get speaking.

Here in Veracruz, a city that’s 100% alive, we make it easy for you to become a Spanish Speaker—to get conversational in Spanish

In and around Veracruz everywhere you’ll go life is fun and exciting, and you’ll be involved in what’s going on. Those around you will be speaking Spanish, and so, you will too!

Your unique immersion program is sheer brilliance. The balance of small classroom instruction and 2
hour outings with your teachers or charlantes is the perfect educational opportunity to improve one's
Spanish TERRY B. M.D., PORTLAND

Our Primary Focus is to get you Speaking Spanish

Spanish immersion using our highly successful, non-traditional approach gets you using your Spanish within a day or two of beginning class.

If you’ve had no prior Spanish, you’ll be carrying on survival conversation in days.

Beginner or advanced, we’ll have you using however much Spanish you know almost immediately, and we’ll teach you a great deal more.

Our teaching staff is experienced and academically well prepared. We, the owners, hold U.S. master's degrees (and secondary and community college teaching credentials).

As a graduate with a degree in linguistics from the University of California, I have experienced a multitude of language teaching methods... Your methods are the most effective I have ever experienced. Jerry C., San Diego

Our School’s Study Approach is Non-Traditional

We start where you are and move forward from there.

All Out-and-About Labs and all classroom study is small group. All study plans are individualized.

Classroom study, absolutely very important in its proper place, is a support service to speaking.

Our housing assures that you'll work with a larger and more varied group of native speakers than you do with traditional homestay.

Out-and-About Labs, in Veracruz, on the ocean, or out in the countryside, led by our native-Spanish-speaker Charlantes will give you hours of practice each day with the regular folks of Veracruz.

What you’ll do, where you’ll go, and with whom you’ll talk is designed to compliment your study goals. Each of our six basic Spanish language immersion programs is designed around specific needs.

Your school's Spanish learning experience was the best I've ever had. The staff is excellent in every way. I especially loved the charlante experience.
Susan P. R.N., W. Virginia

...the in-school lodging really ensures a great trip for both the single traveller and the family. You have a lot of freedom to explore the city and the area but never feel alone or isolated in foreign country which is great. ANNIE C., NEW YORK CITY

Our Seven Basic Spanish Language Immersion Programs

We offer seven basic programs, all absolutely highly serious and successful and all absolutely pure happiness. When you're having fun, you just can't help but speak. Those around you down here speak Spanish, and so you will too!

Intensive Business Spanish Immersion

You’ve studied but you still can’t speak? Be you a businessman or a group of businessmen, a businesswoman or a group of buisnesswomen.

Become conversational through small group out-and-about labs headed by our school trained Charlantes.

Practice in your free time with our always-ready-to-chat-while-they're-working staff

Enhance your perspectives on international business through business visits (some bilingual but for others the Spanish you're developing will be needed).

Practice around town in the evenings and in or out of town on the weekends.

Intensive Conversational Spanish Immersion

Have you found that it's easy to learn Spanish but hard to speak Spanish?

Take all the background you've put together and let us get you talking.

From the moment you take your first sip of hot coffee or freshly squeezed juice while you sit in the kitchen as staff prepares your breakfast you'll be visiting in Spanish. You'll be able to keep speaking Spanish until late in the evening.

The pleasure of talking and visiting in Spanish will be continual as you enjoy Veracruz in our Charlante led Out-and-About Labs.

With your evenings in town and weekends in or out of town you'll have more hours of happy practice.

“Your methods are the most effective I have ever experienced…”
Jerry, San Diego, CA

When we compare our experience to that of my sister and her husband who attended an immersion school in Spain, there is no comparison. They did homework and classwork. We talked and experienced. They have no confidence in their ability to speak. We may not get it right each time, but we have the confidence to try. They have an extremely limited voacbulary. We have the vocabulary needed to live in a Spanish speaking world comfortably. BONNIE H., TUCSON

Subjunctive Intensive Spanish Immersion

Have you tried to conquer the subjunctive but found it to be a very rough going? Or maybe you have tried to avoid it all together?

Let us guide you step-by-step to master this (actually not so tough) verb form.

We approach the subjunctive in conversation where it's much easier to see what's going on and how it compares to English.

Step by step we work through a small set of preliminaries so that you are fully up to speed on all the prior knowledge needed.

Then we move into an easy to use, very clear and specific set of rules that lets you know when to use the subjunctive and when not to use it.

And all along the way we'll practice with you and practice and practice. In short order, conscious control over the subjunctive will begin to convert to automatic.

Family Mexico Vacation and Spanish Study

Want to take the whole family on the vacation of a lifetime?

Everybody in the family who wants to gets Spanish study--it's heavier for the parents and graduates downward in intensity to happy, playful, fun language accquisition for the little ones.

Visit the acquarium, take a harbor tour, ride the giant banana (staying close enough to shore), build sand castles, and eat hot dogs. Maybe you'll want to snorkel or one or two of you will want scuba lessons. A little river rafting or mountain glacier climbing takes the excitement to even higher elevation.

And in addition to all the standard, happy vacation items found in and around this vacation city (a city to which Mexicans come for vacation) add cultural experiences (ballet foklórico, donkey carts at work in the street, ruins and pyramids, tiny restaurants, bus trips, and more and more) that let the kids move into the future with broadened perspectives and an enjoyment of diversity.

Mix and Match with Spanish Immersion

Are you seeing items in our listing of programs that you wish were part of the program that's best for you?

Regardless of the program you choose, you're always welcome to dip into other programs and enjoy their events. It's all Spanish; it's all about speaking better, communicating better, and going where your happiness and sense of adventure takes you will bring to you and to us the very best final results. So look through everything and learn to speak Spanish having more fun than you ever expected.

It's obvious that you hire your staff based on their personalities. They're great conversationalists,
gracious hosts, and a lot of fun! ROBERT LAMB, COLLEGE PARK

Extracurriculars

Here is some out-of-school study you might want to consider. All of it happens in Spanish, and so all of it contributes to you language development.

One of Veracruz's finest public high schools is housed in this beautiful old building. It has very high ceilings with wonderful trim work done in plaster. The building is in the historic city center--the ever-vibrant downtown.

A Public Service from our Spanish Immersion Side--It Works Because of You.

Veracruz has treated us, our language immersion school, and our students wonderfully. As a totally free public service, the school maintains a books-in-English lending library. The books are available to anyone and everyone in Veracruz who reads well enough in English to enjoy them. Right now the library has over 570 titles. Most are recent (and sometimes even current) bestsellers--page-turners that are hard to put down.

One of the easiest ways to improve a second language is to read (and read and read). We constantly look for ways to make the library more and more useful to everyone.

To take a look at the library catalog, copy and paste this url into your browser. www.veracruzenglishlibrary.com

The library is one of the ways we say thanks to Veracruz for letting us be here, and for making being here such a happy and successful experience for our students of Spanish.

Here are some recently added titles.

Ironweed by William Kennedy

Lawless by Matt Boundurant

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The Delicate Storm by Giles Blunt

Pagan Spain by Richard Wright

In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner by Elizabeth George

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

Sycamore Row by John Grisham

Targets of Revenge by Jeffrey S. Stevens

Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow by Eleanor Alexander

If You Eat, You Never Die by Tony Romano

Mission to Paris by Alan Furst

The Stars at Noon by Denis Johnson

We couldn't have the library without you. Over 80% of the library's titles were donated by our Spanish Immersion students. On behalf of all those the library serves and on the behalf of all of us at school, we thank everyone who has contributed.